The gatherings of basketball fans at T.K. Bitterman's in Montrose were thinner than usual this season. The bar's owner, Kent Marshall, wasn't able to show Rockets games because they weren't available on DirecTV this year.

"They've kind of drifted away," he said of the regular customers who used to come to watch the games. "Day to day, it's hurt us."

Local business owners, like loyal fans, are pawns in the ongoing dispute between team owners, Comcast and other distributors such as DirecTV, AT&T's U-Verse, Dish and Suddenlink.

"We have a lot of frustrated customers," Jair Galloso, manager of Stadia Sports Gill in The Woodlands, told me.

This year, most Rockets, Astros and Dynamo games are being broadcast on Comcast's fledging Houston sports network, Comcast SportsNet Houston, which is available only to about 40 percent of the local TV-viewing market.

Negotiations to get the network carried by other distributors have been fruitless as the parties hurl accusations at each other.

Hating cable companies is as much a national pastime as baseball, of course, but in this case, frustrated fans should start by blaming the teams themselves.

Local and regional sports networks have become the latest cash cow in professional sports. The deals are so lucrative that team owners are willing to risk alienating some loyal fans over them.

As with most local sports networks, the Astros and the Rockets put up most of the equity, 46 percent and 31 percent respectively. NBC Sports Group, part of Comcast, owns the remaining 23 percent - for now.

In more mature markets, teams have sold their equity stakes back to their network partners for millions of dollars after the subscriber base took hold and the value of the network rose.

The New York Yankees recently sold a 9 percent stake its YES regional network to Fox. Valued at $800 million when it began in 2001, the network is now worth about $3 billion.

Local sports networks, in other words, are a team piggy bank.

Obviously, the Astros aren't the Yankees. Facing a season in which the teams' bats may do little more than stir up dust bunnies in the American League basement, the network deal may generate less fan fallout than it would in a more prosperous season.

Network general manager Matt Hutchings insists that Comcast isn't using the deal to drive customers to its cable system, even if that may be a short-term result. As a minority owner, it has an interest in expanding the distribution.

"Comcast cable is not even available in many areas of the Houston market," he said. "We are seeking distribution through providers such as DirecTV, AT&T U-Verse and Dish."

Meanwhile, the distributors - several of whom own their own regional sports networks in other markets - say there's a limited amount of these networks they're able to carry.

"If we conceded to all of those demands, our customers would be forced to take and pay for even more channels, some of which they don't want," said Pete Abel, a spokesman for Suddenlink. "That's neither viable nor sustainable."

Professional sports are, of course, businesses, but ones that have parlayed a place in fans' hearts into a hand in the public's wallets. As Mayor Annise Parker noted recently, local taxpayers helped finance the venues where its teams play.

What's more, Comcast SportsNet Houston itself, as I wrote last year, got $1 million in tax handouts from the city for setting up here.

Taxpayers, then, have already subsidized both the teams and the network, in exchange for a blackout.

The owners of the new network created this problem, and they can solve it: While they're divvying up equity stakes and broadcast rights, they should kick in a little extra to cover distribution costs.

That would please fans and it might blunt the price inflation on cable bills from the ever-escalating price increases related to sports programming.

That isn't likely to happen, of course, and local business owners like Marshall aren't willing to wait for the issue to be resolved.

With the Rockets in the playoffs and baseball season looming, he recently switched to Comcast's cable system.